By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
With the Burlington Area School District 4-year-old kindergarten program still evolving, another chapter was written Monday night.
The CATHE Center will not be a partner provider for the 2015-16 school year, as enough parents requested Montessori kindergarten to set up a second classroom at Cooper Elementary School.
BASD Assistant Superintendent and Curriculum Director Connie Zinnen said the change isn’t for anything CATHE didn’t do.
“It was not because CATHE was not an acceptable provider, or that we had any issues,” Zinnen said. “This was just in the best interest of Montessori education.”
In fact, the district offered contracts to the CATHE Center, Plymouth Day Care, Noah’s Ark and Head Start last month in anticipation of the second year of the program.
However, parents of 32 children requested a Montessori 5-year-old kindergarten for 2015-16. Zinnen said the district tries to keep kindergarten classrooms between 22 and 25 students. The added number would have either have required a waiting list, or the district getting a little creative.
The district chose the second path, working with the board at the CATHE Center to discuss a blended Montessori classroom of both 4 year olds and 5 year olds.
“It would be a multi-age classroom,” Zinnen said. “We didn’t want to turn families away.”
The discussion Monday night didn’t require action, because the CATHE Center hadn’t yet returned its contract to the district. Zinnen said there will now be two kindergarten sections at Cooper, but didn’t know the teachers yet.
As of Tuesday, numbers were still lower than last year at this time for the 4K. So far, 115 students have signed up for the program, compared to 126 by this point in 2014. A total of 168 students are in the 4K program for the 2014-15 school year.
There are currently 182 students in the BASD 5K program, and 200 registered for next year. Of those, there are 23 Montessori kindergarten students this year.
The 4K program has been a success, Zinnen said.
“It’s gone extremely well,” she said. “We’ve been very happy, and I think families have been pretty happy.
“For our first year, in taking on such a venture, it’s been a success,” she added.
She’s also still expecting more students to sign up – both for 4K and 5K.
“We assume there are still families that have not registered,” Zinnen said.
She is urging parents to get their children registered as soon as possible. For more information, contact Zinnen at the district office at (262) 763-0210.
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